Dubai clinics require special license for immunisation

By PMA RASHEED 

The Gulf Today, 9 May 2011

DUBAI: Private clinics providing vaccination services in Dubai will now have to obtain a new licence as Vaccine Qualified Clinics (VQCs) from Dubai Health Authority (DHA).
The authority on Sunday has announced its new immunisation policy with comprehensive guidelines to standardise immunisation services at the emirate’s hospitals and clinics, which will be connected to a unified immunisation reporting and recording mechanism.
According to the policy, all healthcare facilities in the emirate will require to fulfill specific requirements if they want to continue providing childhood immunisation services.
A senior health official indicated that parents could now make sure that their children are receiving potent and safe vaccines through the VQCs system. The DHA’s health regulation department will monitor functions at the VQC licensed centres to ensure safe practice and compliance to the new system.
Qadhi Saeed Al Murooshid, director general of the DHA, said that it’s all about assuring global standards of safety and efficiency and better access for Dubai residents to various immunisation services, with special emphasis on child immunisation programmes.
“Once the new policy is in practice and both the private and the government sectors have been put into the unified system, Dubai can benchmark itself internationally in terms of immunisation services,” he added.
“The immunisation services presently provided by private and government health facilities in Dubai, are inadequately coordinated, even though vaccinations protect the community from several life-threatening diseases,” pointed out Al Murooshid.
All immunisation services in Dubai will be streamlined with the implementation of the policy to improve quality of the services, said Laila Al Jassmi, CEO of Health Policy and Strategy Department at the DHA.
“The unified immunisation policy will cover all hospitals and health clinics in the private, government and free zone segments of the emirate. The authority will monitor the process of administering vaccines at all the licensed facilities,” she added.
Dr Ali Ali Marzooqi, Director of Public Health and Safety at the DHA, said that the system will provide technical guidance to healthcare providers to ensure they follow best practices, in terms of administering and storing vaccines.
“However, meeting the new licence criteria will not be a difficult task for the healthcare facilities, as a majority of them are already fulfilling their licensing conditions to provide these services,” he noted.